math problems
by BerryliciousCheerio
Summary: If life was a math problem, if this conundrum could be solved using only a piece of folder paper and a sharpened number two pencil, she thinks that she would feel much better.


**Beck and Cat are, like, my new favorite. Well, for angst, anyway. Disclaimer: I don't own Victorious.**

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><p>.<p>

If Train A leaves the station at 10:22 and travels at one hundred twenty seven miles an hour, and Train B , traveling in the opposite direction, leaves the station at 10:37 and travels at two hundred miles an hour, how long is it before they crash?

She doesn't care how long. All she needs to know is that they crash, that in this fairytale, there is no happy ending.

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><p>It begins with a math problem. He doesn't understand it. She does. They're all of five, and everyone already knows that she knows numbers like they know those mindless TV shows that their parents play on an endless loop, trying to 'educate' them. Sometimes she laughs at them. Her parents never did that. They sat her down with a stack of cards, all labeled with numbers and math problems and made it <em>very <em>clear as to what would happen if she didn't learn them all. The boy, one of the new kids that came from other pre-schools, walks over and says, "Everyone says that you can add good. Can you help me?" She does, because she's always been a 'sucker' as her daddy would say.

When they're done, she says with a smile, "I'm Catarina. My mommy and daddy taught me my numbers and additions and subtractions…" She expects him to leave, like everyone else does when she starts talking fast. He stays. Smiles.

Says, "I'm Beckham. You're funny." She thinks that that is when it all starts.

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><p>.<p>

'If one and one and one is three, how do we make it just you and me?'

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><p>She meets Jade West when they're seven. They've been best friends for two years, managing to ignore the kids that say, "Catty has cooties! Catty has cooties!" She had nicknamed him Beck, he called her Cat. She bounces up to Jade, all smiles and glitter and unicorns, and Jade gives her a dead stare.<p>

"Go away."

"I'm Catarina, but my best friend just calls me Cat."

"Go. Away." When Beck walks up, she says nothing.

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><p>.<p>

It's always been like that. BeckandJade and Cat. Even then, the equation didn't make sense.

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><p>Jade's horrible at math. But she refuses to let Cat help her, "I'll figure it out on my own," she says. Beck ends up having to help her because the teacher threatens to fail her otherwise. Cat helps him, he helps Jade, Jade passes the fourth grade.<p>

"Everyone's happy," he says.

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><p>.<p>

No matter how many numbers she memorizes, no matter how many problems she figures out, this equation stumps her. How can everyone be happy, if one person isn't?

.

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><p>They meet Andre and Robbie and Rex in sixth grade. By that time, it's no secret that Beck <em>like <em>likes Jade and Jade _like _likes him back, but they just won't admit it.

Robbie's good at math too, even though Rex makes fun of him for it.

Andre isn't the greatest, but he's not the worst, either. At least he doesn't say anything about her mathematic abilities. Jade, even though they're, like, _best_ friends, messes with her about it and calls her a math geek. Beck never tries to stop her.

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><p>.<p>

It was always Beck + Cat, but now there is a new variable in the equation and the answer is all off.

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><p>Beck and Jade are the first to get accepted to Hollywood Arts. Beck is the one that mentions it while they're eating lunch.<p>

Andre asks whether he could audition too and Jade snaps at him. Beck lays a hand on her wrist and she apologizes quietly.

Robbie says that he thinks that he and Rex could make it in with their comedy skills and decides to audition as well.

Beck looks at Cat and asks her to audition because, "Then we could all go to high school together and graduate. That'd be fun, huh?" She nods, because there's nothing else to do.

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><p>.<p>

She nods because their group is six, counting Rex, and if you subtract one from six, you get five, and five is an odd number. She doesn't like odd numbers.

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><p>The first time they kiss, it's because everyone is goading them on and because they're standing underneath the mistletoe at the Winter Formal. Jade watches with guarded eyes as Beck swoops down and gives her a peck just a little to the right of her lips.<p>

Her heart races and her breathing hitches when he pulls away. That's not supposed to happen, because they're best friends, and he's dating Jade, but oh gosh, it feels good.

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><p>.<p>

If life was a math problem, if this conundrum could be solved using only a piece of folder paper and a sharpened number two pencil, she thinks that she would feel much better.

.

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><p>She kisses him the next time. They're sixteen, he just got a car, and they're alone because Jade's in Mexico (getting another tattoo, no doubt) and Robbie and Rex are at some cousin's bar mitzvah and Andre is taking care of his insane grandma and Tori is off being perfect and singing perfect and looking perfect.<p>

He doesn't recoil, but when they finally pull away, he says, "You're not supposed to kiss your best friend, Cat."

She mutters the first few numbers of pi. "3.1415926…" He looks at her with new eyes.

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><p>.<p>

It doesn't matter to her whether or not she's supposed to kiss her best friend. Two odd numbers shouldn't make an even, but they do.

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><p>"When does this stop?" She's feeling worse than normal, because this time, they're fucking in the janitor's closet, only yards away from Jade's locker.<p>

He asks, "When does what stop?"

"This." She gestures to him and back to her. "Us. When do we stop?"

He puts it into words that she can understand. "Never. We're like pi. We just keep going until the end of time."

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><p>.<p>

It's a low blow, she thinks, for him to use pi to represent them. Pi is perfect and infinite and normal, while they're illegitimate and they most definitely have an expiration date.

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><p>She tells him they're over. She tells him that they can still be best friends, because if you add something, you can always just subtract it to make it the original numeral.<p>

He cries, and begs, and pleads, "Cat, I can't go back to how we were!" She asks him to leave.

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><p>.<p>

You can always correct a math mistake by just using an eraser. Unless you write in pen, like she always did because she was Cat and she was nothing if not a perfect mathematician.

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><p>He hangs himself. His suicide note is to Jade, but the name he carved into his arm is Cat. Jade slaps her, tells her that that is all her fault. Cat cries because it is her fault. She used pen on this equation and she can't just rewrite it to get the answer that she wants, the answer in which he's still a variable.<p>

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><p>.<p>

When she gets home, she rips up her math papers and breaks her pencils and drowns her calculator (not that she ever used it).

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><p>.<p>

Train A crashes on May fourteenth, 2013. Train B tries to carry on. Maybe she screwed up the work…

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><p><strong>Shitty and all over the fucking place. I'd like to apologize for…that. I just was tired and bored and it's, like, two hours past when I should've been asleep, so this is what happens. Anyway, I'd still love a review. :) <strong>


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